Conflicted

Miles is like his daddy in so many ways. He eats fast, he's tall, he's social, he gets fixated on the TV, he's affectionate, he falls asleep in less than 2 minutes, he's an early bird, he loves life... However, as we start to see more of his personality, it's becoming clear that he's a lot like me. I'm conflicted about whether I think this is a good or bad thing.

I have always been a perfectionist. I had the onset of ulcers at age 16 and suffered with stress headaches all through high school & college b/c I put so much pressure on myself. There is good that comes with this type of personality but most days it's exhausting. Thankfully Darrin came into my life and lightened me up a lot. And I don't say that jokingly, I thank God for him. I know he is the one for me...opposites do attract. I am able to let stuff go a little more now & not everything has to be perfect anymore, although Darrin might disagree.

The other day when I picked Miles up from daycare, he had a play spoon & fork in his hands. Instead of dropping them and coming to me, he acted excited to see me, and then walked over to the play stove, opened the door, and put the fork & soon inside. I took my shoes off in his playroom a couple weeks ago...he grunted, picked up my shoes, and took them to my room. I later found them perfectly aligned by my bed. He likes to watch TV in his red chair now. He drags it over in front of the TV to watch Handy Manny. Tonight when I gave him his milk, he held the sippy cup under his arm and proceeded to push the chair back to where we typically keep it. After the chair was in it's place, he walked over to the couch to sit in my lap and drink his milk.

What a funny kid. It's so fun to watch his personality develop. We may have to work on this aspect though, I'm not sure Darrin can survive two of us.

So So Weekend

I can't really say it was a good weekend b/c Darrin was out of town, but it wasn't bad either. Miles & I made it fine. We played on Friday night and both went to bed early. Saturday we played around the house & went to Hunt's birthday party in the afternoon. Today we made it to church on time, both took naps, had a visit from Granny & Pa and then went back to church. Besides the fun things we did, it was kind of uneventful, which is the sort of weekend I hope for when Darrin is out of town. It's nice when Miles just follows his normal schedule and we go with the flow.

Miles was very excited about Granny & Pa stopping by. I mentioned it way too early, which caused a lot of whining and pointing towards the door until they actually arrived. Next time I'll just let them surprise him.


I thought I'd offer an update on the Lyme treatment. I can't remember exactly what I have shared (and I'm too lazy to go back and look) so forgive me if I repeat a little. I went through 30 days of homeopathic treatment for Lyme disease that caused a predicted onset of all my symptoms....headaches, neck stiffness, joint pain & body aches. By the end of it I was begging for antibiotics b/c I thought the treatment wasn't working and wanted to go with a different option.

According to my doctor the medicine was working & had stirred my body up. We now needed to let it rest for a couple weeks. We did, and he was right. After resting my body, I was better. After talking through it with Dr. Bernui, it was obvious we had made some progress treating the Lyme disease but still had some work to do.

Dr. Bernui believes that by the time patients get to him, they have layers of issues to treat. In my case, he thinks the active mono is also causing some problems. So, I am currently undergoing 30 days of homeopathic treatment for mono. I am half way through and am experiencing a lot of the same issues as I did when I took the Lyme treatment. The homeopathic treatment works by killing off the virus in my system and then I have to get rid of it by drinking 80+ ounces of water a day. I'm trying to drink lots of water and just make it through.

After I finish with this treatment, we are going to let my body rest for a couple of weeks and then probably treat the Lyme disease with 30 days of homeopathic treatment again. As Dr. Bernui says, I didn't get sick overnight & I won't get better overnight either. I feel like we are on the right track. It is definitely a longer & harder process than I thought. This whole experience has been quite a journey. It's been so long since I felt good that I don't really remember what that feels like. If & when I feel that way again, I will never take my health for granted again.

Happy, Happy Birthday

This afternoon Miles and I went to a birthday party for his friend, Hunt. It was at a gymnastics place in Jackson. Miles had a blast. He played hard for two hours and then crashed on the way home.

Miles & the birthday boy...

It was a Mickey Mouse theme...

He liked the trampoline but really struggled with coordination on it. Yes, it is time to move up a size in pants. Poor kid.

I kept pushing him off backwards into this and also throwing him into it. He loved it.

The cupcakes were a hit with him....big surprise. This...

...lead to this...

Thankfully the sugar was given at the beginning of the party so there was plenty of time to run it off. Fun day. Happy Birthday Hunt!

The Zoo

We woke up Monday morning. All along the plan was to do something together on the Monday of Presidents weekend. We knew Darrin would be home on Sunday night & since we'd be in Nashville there would be something fun to do. But...I never planned anything and then I didn't feel great all weekend b/c I'm in the middle of some medicine/treatment for my Lyme/mono issues so we just decided on Sunday to go home on Monday morning. We even contemplated driving home on Sunday night, but quickly changed our minds....just too tired.

In typical me fashion, I woke up on Monday and told Darrin I wanted to do something together. I change my mind a lot. The options were the Nashville zoo, go home through Kentucky and go to Ya Ya's Island, or go home through Jackson and go to Casey Jones' Village. We both easily landed with the zoo. My mom went with us. We drove separately and then just came home from there.

Going to the zoo...yippie...


You have to crawl into this thing. It's in the middle of the meerkat exhibit. Meerkats are a family favorite for sure. It got hot and claustrophobic in there in a hurry. We didn't linger.



For those of you that know me well, you know I like to have the perfect outfit for every occasion. This is NOT the perfect outfit. The weatherman lied and I did a terrible job of packing. Once again, another awkward family photo b/c of the height difference...we love our awkward family though...


Obviously very interested in the goats. I think he liked it b/c they were so close and there wasn't really anything between them.


He loves the "tour-tells"...

He loved the pizza and animals equally.




They have an amazing play area for kids, which is one reason I would almost lean towards the Nashville zoo over Memphis even though they don't seem to have as many animals. You can climb all over this and there are random slides and bridges. Very cute.


His new favorite expression...

Who can resist this face...

Not Daddy...

The Park

I bet you wonder where in the world I come up with these catchy titles? Sometimes (most times) creativity escapes me.

Last weekend, Darrin was flying out of Nashville to recruit. So I took off work a little early on Friday and we all drove to the airport. Miles and I dropped Darrin off and went to stay with my mom for the weekend. Saturday was filled with shopping....new shoes for Miles since he's now a size 6.5 and we were still cramming him into a 5.

Sunday we went to church and then to the park to play. It felt great outside...just a little on the windy side as you'll notice from our hair. My niece, Sarah, went with us, but we failed to get any pictures of her with Miles. Sarah - this must not happen again.

Two & a half haircuts and in need of another. I can't keep up.



How hilarious is this??? My mom was a nervous wreck but he loved it. He was smiling from ear to ear when he got to the bottom.


This is his new "cheese" face. He's learned how to pose for a picture....kind of...






We had to leave the park to go get Darrin at the airport. I thought Miles would have a come apart when we left but we started chanting "Daddy, Daddy" and telling him that we were going to get Daddy. It must have worked b/c he seemed ok with leaving. I'll post the zoo pictures tomorrow. Now, I'm going to chill on the couch. Goodnight.

18 Month Stats

Darrin took Miles to his 18 month well visit with Dr. Bates today. From what I hear, it was a rather traumatic visit. Apparently Miles is to the age that he associates the doctors office with shots/pain. I sent Darrin with a list of things to do....like get an updated shot record for daycare, ask about a spot on his stomach, etc. Included on the list was to get a picture on the exam table b/c I always include one on the blog with his stats.

I received a text from Darrin while they were at the appointment that read "picture is going to be impossible emotional meltdown here". I asked why. He replied "knows shots are coming". So, this is what he got, which I think is very cute.

He did not like the table or the nurse. We really like the nurse he had today so that is a little sad. Darrin said that when it was time to leave he let Miles walk out. As soon as he walked out the door and saw the nurse, he wouldn't go any further. She even hid and he still wouldn't walk. I feel so bad for him b/c I remember that feeling as a child.

The visit was at 8:30am and then Darrin took him to daycare. I got a text from his teacher at the beginning of nap time saying that he was laying on his cot crying....and that he never does that. Knife to the heart for this momma. I wanted to leave work immediately and take him home. But I talked myself through it and after nap time he was better. To add insult to injury, he also fell on a toy at daycare and scrapped his face. All in all, it was a yucky day for our little boy.

He weighs 25lbs 11oz (48th percentile) and is 33.8" tall (86th percentile). His head is 49cm (81st percentile). He didn't even gain a whole pound since his 15 month visit, but I'm not surprised b/c the boy is B-U-S-Y.

At 18 months he:
• is a great eater. He has a big appetite and loves a variety of foods. Meat is probably is favorite food group.
• loves grapes, eggs, milk & marshmallows the most.
• is still drinking almond milk. He loves it and I'm not willing to try regular milk again until he's old enough to tell us what's wrong. Enough with the guessing games.
• is a great sleeper. Bed time is around 7:30pm, give or take. He typically wakes up around 6:30am.
• has started to watch a little TV, but Handy Manny is really the only show that holds his attention.
• loves to play. He does not discriminate when it comes to his toys. Just when I think we can phase something out, he plays with it. Right now, he particularly loves his Thomas trains, his teddy bear & his Handy Manny tool box.
• loves to read and look at books.
• is starting to say lots of words and repeat after us. He seems to have trouble with "s" when it is at the beginning of the word. He says "ooze" for shoes. He also replaces "c" with "d". Cat is "dat". My mom said that I had the same c & d issue when I was little. I called my brothers "Diss" and "Darl" for Chris & Carl.
• likes to test us (mostly me) on a regular basis. It is clear he knows right from wrong, but will ALWAYS see what he can get away with.
• is still very affectionate and loving towards us. He gives lots of hugs and kisses.
• is finally finished with the bottle completely. He has been taking a night time bottle only for quite a while. It's been replaced with a sippy cup and few less ounces. He just doesn't seem ready to give up the drink altogether.
• has had 2.5 hair cuts. I cut his bangs once so that's the half.
• still takes a pacifier at nap time and bed time....and when mom and dad have heard enough. This is the next milestone to be tackled in the near future. He probably won't care as much as we will. It's just hard to give it up when it works like *magic*.
• seems to be a social kid. Goes to daycare happily on most days. He likes to talk about his friends at home. He smiles and lights up when we talk about them.

I could go on forever. The kid is such a joy. He is so happy and seems to love life. May he always live with that enthusiasm. We will do our best to see that he does.

Exhausted

We had a great weekend, and I have tons of pictures to post from the park & the zoo, but I'm just too tired tonight. I leave you with one of my favorite pics of the weekend...

Oh, and Happy year and half Birthday to Miles! Our baby is 18 months today. Time flies when you're having fun.....and we couldn't be having more fun. We love you, Miles!

Thomas is the New Manny

Miles is definitely still into Handy Manny but Thomas the Train is becoming a new favorite. I bought these pjs for him today and made the mistake of showing them to him while he was in the bath tub. He could not get out fast enough to put them on. As soon as he was dressed & I put him down from his changing table, he went straight to his playroom and started playing with his trains.


I love Handy Manny but a break from the same two songs they play in every episode is not such a bad thing.

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day started with gifts for Miles and Darrin. We put Miles in bed with us first thing this morning and gave him a new book, "First 100 Words" and a pink hippo. He's really into hippos these days, or as he says "up-pos", so I ignored the fact that it was pink and bought it anyway.


Darrin got a goody bag with random things & an iTunes gift card. As he opened his gift, he told me that I would be getting mine later in the day. I confess that I thought for sure that he had forgotten. I actually didn't mind b/c I really enjoyed shopping for them and sharing some rare time together in the morning.

Miles' Valentine party at school was at 2:15pm. The plan was to meet Darrin there at 10 after. Around 1:30pm, I was standing in the hall talking to friends at work and Miles came flying around the corner and ran to me with a card. It was the cutest thing ever and nearly brought tears to my eyes. I said that I would read the card later b/c I would probably cry and then said that it was almost time to go to Miles' Valentine party....still oblivious that my husband had other plans. It's not unusual for them to visit me at work so I thought Darrin was just trying to surprise me by bringing my Valentine's cards to my office with Miles.

Finally Darrin made me read the card from Miles. It explained that he was there with Daddy to take me away for the rest of the afternoon. Darrin's card went on to explain that we had dinner reservations at Patti's, which is also where we had our first date. We left and enjoyed a great afternoon together. The weather was beautiful and Miles was so well behaved. It takes a little over an hour to get there and I must say the drive was so nice just to spend time together.

A few pictures at Patti's...








Happy Valentine's Day to the loves of my life. I will love you both forever.